HI all ,
I am a new member,
I am in the middle of restoring a 1973 MGB roadster.
Started this project back in 1990, got really montivated with this job for 2 years and interest started to wain and gave up about 1992.
i am retired now with more time on my hands , so started again with renewed interest.
I think i have a topic that some of you may be interested in.
I have recently purchased a rear spring kit from a well known spares supplier in the midlands UK, after fitting thiese leaf springs i became aware of a potential problem! when fitting the bushes for the rear shackles it became obvious that there was far to much clearance in the spring eye joint.
The bushes fell into the spring eye! on closer inspection it was obvious that the spring eye had a bore of 22m/m and the bushes had an outside dia of 21m/m.
i contacted my parts supplier, and after a day or so said he thought the bushes might be the wrong size, he contacted MGOC who sent me a set of the right bushes.
These were the same size as the ones he supplied, after more conversation over the phone he said that the springs meet the british heritage spec.
and quite frankly gave up on me!
i decided to buy another pair of springs from another well known parts supplier, imagine my suprise when i found out that they supply the same springs PAT no GSV 1006.
i have contacted 3 of the large parts suppliers all using the same springs and all the springs had the same dimensions.
none of them offered a solution to the problem, saying they had sold lots of these and nobody had complained before.
is this because the customers assume its brand new and must be ok or have limited fitting experience?
Clearly if you fit these on your car you will be left with a lot of slack that cannot be taken up. These bushes are designed to compress in the spring eye so when in use the rubber flexes rather than rotate on the shackle pin, the shackle pins are shoulderd prevening the bush from being over compressed.
None of the parts suppliers seem to want to contact the manufacturers with a view to adressing this problem, i think it would be possible to sort this by pressing a thin steel bush into the spring eye and take it back to stock size.
Has anyone any comments on this issue?
Regards
JK.

Ive not heard of this before. How slack would you say the new parts are compared to the originals / I take it the slackness would only be detectable when the suspension is moving vertiaclly but is there any sideays movement as this would be more likely to impact handling ?

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